In Photos | ‘Please Touch’: How One Person Is Making Art Accessible to the Blind
'Access For All' aims to make the world more enjoyable, not just sustainable, for the disabled.
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Initially, people are hesitant to touch the artwork. Everywhere they go, they are told ‘do not touch this’, ‘keep away from that’. "When we get them to interact with the artwork, they ask us twice, thrice, if it’s okay to touch. It’s a mental barrier that we are lifting for them," says Siddhant Shah.
Tactile Ravi Verma Print at Serendipity Art Festival 2019.
Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
Siddhant Shah's organisation, Access For All, makes art more accessible to visually impaired, and disabled persons. They do this by using different mediums and materials like wood, MDF, polymer, to make tactile replicas of artwork.
Shah conducting Abhas - tactile art experience at DAG In Chennai. Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
A child once asked, "why do all artists make paintings in the same size?” The innocent question prompted Shah to think about making art more dynamic and true-to-life. "We take the feedback of the users very critically, as we didn't have any textbook to follow," says Shah.
Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
They often use the material that is represented in the picture to give a more real-feel experience. For instance, here, in the replica, they have used pearls for the jewellery, and carpet fabric like in the image.
Tactile artwork at City Palace Jaipur (2015). Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
“While recreating this photograph, instead of just embossing the image to make it tactile, we recreated the entire garment because the essence of the image was in the flare and movement of the Ghagra," says Siddhant Shah.
Tactile artwork city Palace Jaipur (2015). Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
“For her, it was fascinating to know that music could be written, and to experience the notes that were being played in the written form.” Access For All started using sensorial elements like sound and smell too, along with braille captions to create more holistic experiences.
Senses 2.0 at Serendipity Arts Festival Goa 2017. Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
Kids experience tactile replicas of the wall graffities made by St+Art India at Delhi's famous Lodhi Art District. Shah says, "We also try to make our tactile artwork mobile, and not just stuck to the wall. So that we can take the pieces to the people."
Lodhi Art Festival 2019. Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
The artwork here is a drone shot of a boat in the water. It’s a striking image. "We tried to recreate the feel and dynamism of the image, the texture of the water, and the boat using sandblasted plastic," explains Shah.
Tactile Photographs at Senses 2.0 at Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa. Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
This is a replica of famous artist Zarina Hashmi’s work which often involves detailed maps of places. Shah says they made it like a puzzle, so the kids could interact with the pieces while putting it together.
Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
"We don’t choose the artwork. The organisers usually give use pieces that we replicate. But then we collaborated with artists to create tactile pieces that weren’t just replicas of other art, but original pieces," Shah explains. These tactile toys are some of the creations they came up with.
Tactile Toys based on Madhvi Parekh’s Show for DAG (2018). Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
There's plenty of artwork out there that is already tactile. "We also take them to places where they can touch the actual artefacts. We don’t always have to create replicas of art," says Shah.
Heritage Walk at Red Fort for UNESCO India (2017). Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
There was this one child who had come to an event in Mumbai, that said, "why do you only make us do candles, bags and greeting cards? Why don’t we get to make art like this?" Experiencing tactile art encourages them to make their own art as a medium of self-expression, and not as a commodity, says Shah.
Accessibility at India Art Fair 2022. Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
Shah is constantly on the lookout for how the world around him can be made more accessible. His latest project is the tactile business card using transparent braille sheets. “Why print braille and text separately? If we print it together, we can also make it more sustainable," he says.
Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
People will have the right thought, but their execution won't always work. Sometimes ramps are made too steep, or the handrailings too high or too low. "We were the accessibility partner at NH7, and we basically did an accessibility check to see that everything was realistically accessible to people with disabilities, and there were enough people to help them on the ground," explains Shah.
Access for All at NH7 Weekender Music Festival. Source: Access For All/ Siddhant Shah
On International Day for Disabled Persons, Siddhant Shah, founder of Access for All, takes us through how his organisation has been the driving force in making art accessible to the visually impaired, and disabled people across the country.
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